Families of the missing girls in Takoradi – confirmed dead through DNA – have been advised to seek legal action to compel the Ghana Police Service to release the bones for them to conduct their independent DNA tests.
The advice follows the refusal of the police to hand the bones to the families for the independent DNA tests.
Even after viewing the skeletal remains that police DNA results confirmed as those of the four girls, the family members are still not convinced they belong to their relatives.
The family members, bussed to Accra from Takoradi to view the skeletal remains Thursday, appeared more incensed with a growing mistrust for the police.
Shouting on top of his voice amidst intermittent sobbing, a man identified to be a family member of one of the girls, said one does not need any scientific examination to tell that the skeletons shown them are years old.
The police therefore refused to hand them the bones.
Sharing her thoughts on the development on Onua FM’s Yen Sempa on Friday, a human rights lawyer, Irene Aborchie-Nyahe, explained that “everybody has a family. The body belongs to the family but this has a crime in it so the police want to do their investigations”.
She noted, however, that since they are done with their investigations, they should hand over to the bones to the families.
“The body does not belong to the police. They should not drag it with the family. The police cannot bury the bones. It is the families that can bury the bones.”
Lawyer Aborchie-Nyahe explained that the police can use picture and the DNA tests as their evidence in court so the bones can be handed over to the families.
“They can use pictures for evidence. For me, I don’t think they have to carry the bones to the court. They can go with the pictures and the DNA results. By all means, the bones will be buried and they [police] cannot bury the bones.”
By Kweku Antwi-Otoo|3news.com|Ghana